Extending the iTETRIS platform for Smartphone sensing and communication simulation

Smartphones are nowadays powerful sensing platforms equipped with multiple communication interfaces. Considering in particular the WiFi-Direct technology in a transportation context, smartphones are capable of sensing various types of traffic conditions and self-organize in proximity networks to consolidate the sensed data and transmit it to the transport infrastructure. The high penetration rate of smartphones in road users, the scale of road networks and logistic reasons make simulation studies a preferred choice for proximity-based traffic sensing applications. In this paper, we present the extensions to the iTETRIS ITS simulation platform required to support proximity services based on the WiFi-Direct technology in a mobile vehicular environment. We describe the added WiFi-Direct features in ns-3 as well as in the Application module, and through early simulations, we shed lights on some limitations of WiFi-Direct procedures to efficient proximity networking for traffic sensing.